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"Big bookstores are the ones most affected by Amazon's dominance. Borders is long gone. Barnes and Noble isn't in the best health. And Waterstones in Britain has started selling Kindles. The reason? There is very little difference between big, impersonal chain stores selling books and a big, impersonal website selling books. Independent retailers, on the other hand, have a lot to offer that Amazon cannot: niche coffee, atmosphere, serendipitous discoverability of new titles and authors, recommendations from knowledgable staff, signings and events, to name a few."

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"But, for once, the smaller independent retailers could be among the winners. Despite HMV's inability to make high street music retailing pay, many independent record shops are already reporting higher demand and sales, due partly to a backlash against Amazon's tax set–up and the difficulty of stumbling across unexpected gems online.

Stephen Godfroy, co–owner of Rough Trade, a chain of three London shops including a 500 sq m (5,000 sq ft) warehouse off Brick Lane, east London, said business is 'the best it's ever been' in the company's 36–year history. He said Rough Trade sales in the latest quarter were up 8% on the previous year and the company is in the process of launching a new online store and an outpost in Brooklyn, New York.

'UK music is in rude health, despite the woes of the last outdated chain of entertainment retailer,' he said. 'The collapse of HMV is sad but ultimately a necessary process of renewal that will result in a significantly brighter future for UK music consumers.'"

Fig.1 The Silent League [http://www.silentleague.com/] play in the intimate performance space at the back of Rough Trade [http://irocklondon.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/vinyl–paradise–with–occasional–live.html].

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"Tech City Map, created by developers at Trampoline Systems and designed by Playgen, pulls in streams of social network data for all of the businesses in the area to help analyse their influence. The Tech City Map follows in the footsteps of Matt Biddulph's original Silicon Roundabout map as well as Wired's very own version, produced in 2009."

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"Booktype is a free, open source platform that produces beautiful, engaging books formatted for print, Amazon, iBooks and almost any ereader within minutes. Create books on your own or with others via an easy–to–use web interface. Build a community around your content with social tools and use the reach of mobile, tablet and ebook technology to engage new audiences."